Decred was launched with a Request For Proposal system in order to provide compensation for contributors working on larger or more significant projects. A document (RFP) would be produced which described the requirements and scope of a project, along with a clearly defined set of milestones and a reward specified in DCR. The RFP would be posted publicly and community members would be given a period of time to submit their proposals. After review, a proposal would be selected and awarded the contract.

The RFPs were stored on GitHub and they can still be viewed. The first, RFP-001, was looking for developers to overhaul the Paymetheus application. RFP progress and payments were made public via the Decred forum1.

The RFP process worked well for certain types of tasks, however a need arose to have contributors engaged and compensated over the longer term and on a more flexible basis2. In January 2017 the RFP system was changed to a contractor model and Decred began to hire it’s first contractors.

Decred currently has over 50 active contractors and they can be viewed on the decred.org Contributors page. The active contractors are made up of both individuals and corporate contractors. Contractors contribute in a wide variety of ways including software development, design, marketing, community management and documentation.

Contractors submit a monthly invoice to DHG (Decred Holding Group) and are paid in Decred according to an hourly rate.

The contractor model and how to get involved are thoroughly documented in the Decred blog post “Decred Recruiting”. If you are interested, please start by reading this blog post thoroughly - it should contain everything you need to know to get started. We look forward to your contributions!